house and congressional republicans now at odd on two fronts, the battle over the nomination of chuck hagel for defense secretary. it has now been delayed for another week, that vote. $8.5 billion of automatic spending cuts scheduled to take effect in two weeks' time if no agreement is reached. we have it all covered this morning and we want to start with a view from the white house. in washington, the job of white house chief of staff is known as the most powerful post in town and there is a new man occupying that seat of power and he is here with us this morning on "meet the press," his first appearance. but who he? how did he get here? denis mcdonough is one of 11 kids and qualification enough in a small town in minnesota. he was a high school football star. he cut his teeth in politics and working in the house for congressman lee hamilton and in the senate for majority leader tom daschle and later for barack obama. when he decided to make a run for the white house in 2008 he tapped mcdonough to be his foreign policy adviser to the campaign. the president announced him as his pick, mcdon